One effect of this victory however was immediately to beget in John a hope of being able to extricate himself from his late engage ment in favour of the exiles and outlaws, and perhaps also from the vassalage in which he had bound himself and his kingdom to the pope. In this view he at first attempted to raise an army with which to invade France, before doing anything in fulfilment of his promises either to the barons or the Church; but finding that the opposition of these united powers was too strong for him, ho changed his course of proceeding, and temporised with both, until, by further submissions to the new papal legate, the Cardinal Nicholas, who arrived in England in the end of September, If be did not gain over the national clergy, be at leant converted the pope himself, from being the head of the confederacy against him, into his friend and supporter. The primate Langton however, greatly to his honour, still continued to make common cause with the barons. Langton had already, in a meeting held at St. Alban's, August 25, proposed to the barons to rally round the charter of Henry I., and had solemnly sworn them to hazard their lives in the maintenance of the rights and liberties therein recognised. For a short time the commencing strife was appeased by an award of the pope; soon after which, in June 1214, John hastened over to France, where however the great victory of Bouvines, gained by Philip (July 27) over the allied army of the English under John's bastard brother, the earl of Salisbury, the forces of the emperor, of the Earl of Flanders, and of the Earl of Boulogne, compelled the English king to sue for a cessation of hostilities. On the 10th of October a truce was arranged between the two kingdoms, to last for five years. But the depressed state of John's affairs now presented to his barons an opportunity for the renewal of their demands, of which they hastened to avail themselves. Their first memorable assemblage in which they concerted their plans, was held, under pretence of cele brating the festival of the taint, in the abbey of St. Edmund al Edinundsbury, on the 20th of November. Before they separated they advanced one by one to the high altar, and laying their hands upon it, took a solemn oath to withdraw their fealty, and levy wa] upon John, if he should refuse their demands, and never to lay dowi their arms till they had obtained from him a charter confirming thi national liberties. Their petition was formally presented to John it be Temple, at London, on the feast of the Epiphany, the 6th of ranuary following. On its rejection, both parties, after an appeal to ho pope, who at once took the part of John, prepared for war. In he beginning of May 1215, the barons having mustered their forces, vhich they put under the command of Robert Fitzwalter, and desig lated by the title of the army of God and of his Holy Church, pro to lay siege to the castle of Northampton. wasting a ortnight however they were obliged to retire from this fortress : but laving then marched to London, they were gladly received by the itizens (May 17th), and immediately took possession of the city. On his, John consented to a conference, and the celebrated meeting on he plain of Runnymead, which lay about half-way between London uid Odiham in Hampshire, whither John had retired, was held in ionsequence on Trinity Monday, the 15th of June. The result was, he concession and signature by John of the Great Charter, embodying al the barons' demands.
Scarcely however had Magna Charta been thus extorted, when John let himself to work to endeavour to escape from its obligations. The luspicione excited by his general conduct, and especially by his intro luction into the kingdom of numerous bodlee of foreign troops, again :idled up the barons in arms by the following October. At first this sew contest ran strongly in favour of the king ; William D'Albiney, who, by the direction of the insurgent leaders, had thrown himself into the castle of Rochester, was, after sustaining a siege of seven weeks, compelled to surrender at discretion : news soon after arrived that the pope, as requested by John, had annulled the charter; this intelligence was followed by other papal bulls suspending Archbishop Langton, excommunicating the chiefs of the barons by name, and laying the city of London under an interdict; and John was soon tinabled to wreak his vengeance on his enemies almost without :ncountering any resistance. While one part of his army, under the :ommand of the Earl of Salisbury, wasted the counties around the metropolis, where the chief strength of the barons lay, he himself, with another force, proceeded to the north, where he drove back their ally, Alexander, the young king of Scotland, pursuing him as far as Edinburgh, and reducing to ashes every town, village, and castle, ou both sides of the border, that fell within the range of his furious progress. In these disastrous circumstances, the barons congregated
in London resolved, after much debate, upon the desperate expedient of offering the crown to Louis, the dauphin of France, as the only chance left to them of preserving any part of the national liberties. Accepting the invitation, Louis set sail from Calais with a fleet of 680 sail, and on the 30th of May 1216 landed at Sandwich. John retired to the west at his approach, and the French prince, after attacking and easily reducing the castle of Rochester, immediately marched to the capital. The fortune of the contest now turned. The people in all parts of the country eagerly rallied around Louis; even his foreign auxiliaries, most of whom were Frenchmen, began to quit the standard of the English king, and either to join that of the invader or to return home. At this critical moment arrived the news of the death of John's powerful friend Pope Innocent III., (16th July). Still however most of the places of strength were in his hands; and some months were spent to little purpose by the adverse party in attempts to reduce Dover, Windsor, and other castles which were occupied by his garri sons. Meanwhile, in the disappointment produced by the protraction of the war, jealousy of their foreign allies was beginning to spread among the insurgents; and it is very doubtful what the issue of the struggle might have been if the life of John had been prolonged. But on the 14th of October, as he was attempting to ford the Wash at low-water, from Cross-keys to the Foss-dyke, and had already got across himself with the greater part of his army, the return of the tide suddenly swept away the carriages and horses that conveyed all his baggage and treasures; on which, in an agony of vexation, lie proceeded to the Cistercian convent of Swinesheed, and was that same night seized with a violent fever, the consequence probably of irritation and fatigue, but which one account attributes to an imprudent indulgence at supper in fruit and new cider ; another to poison administered to him by one of the monks. Although very ill, ho was conveyed the next day in a litter to the castle of Slesford, and thence on the 16th to the castle of Newark, where he expired on the 18th, in the forty ninth year of his age, and the seventeenth of his reign.
All our historians paint the character of John in the darkest colours; and the history of his reign seems to prove that to his full share of the ferocity of his race be conjoined an unsteadiness and volatility, a sus ceptibility of being suddenly depressed by evil fortune and elated beyond the bounds of moderation and prudence by its opposite, which give a littleness to hie character not belonging to that of any of his royal ancestors. He is charged in addition with a savage cruelty of disposition, and with the most unbounded licentiousness: while on the other hand so many vices are not allowed to have been relieved by a single good quality. It ought to be remembered however that John has had no historian; his cause expired with himself, and every writer of his story has told it in the spirit of the opposite and victorious party; and further, that the intense disgust always felt by every ekes of his countrymen at his base surrender of his kingdom in vassalage to the pope, may have led them to regard with leas distrust all adverse reports respecting his general character.
The children of John by his queen Isabella of .Angouktino wore 1, Henry, who succeeded him as Henry III. ; 2, Richard, born January 5, 1208, created Earl of Cornwall 1226, elected King of the Romans 1257, died 2nd April 1272 ; 3, Joan, married June 25, 1221, to Alexander II. of Scotland, died March 4, 1238 ; 4, Eleanor, married, first, 1235, to William Marshall, earl of Pembroke, secondly, 1238, to Simon Mont fort, earl of Leicester ; and 5, Isabella, born 1214, married 20th July 1235, to Frederic IL, emperor of Germany, died 1st December 1241. Several natural children are also assigned to him, none of whose names however make any figure in our history.